Online Public Relations Thoughts

Daily entries on Public Relations and communications ideas and trends

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Raw

One of the peculiarities of modern life is that we shield ourselves from unpleasantness that makes life possible. We don't want to know what goes into the making of products we buy shrink-wrapped in stores. Perhaps the least pleasant case of ignorance is what happens in a slaughterhouse. That is the subject of this documentary from the BBC. Even the opening is sickening to anyone who would rather not think about where bacon comes from. On the other hand, those few of us who grew up on farms are not particularly surprised by what is filmed here. We saw it ourselves, although it was usually one cow or hog at a time rather than an assembly line of carcasses. Large meat packers have rarely, if ever, talked about their processes. One wonders if they could without loss of reputation and business. PR cannot help much by relaying the facts. They are too raw and elemental.